IAEA Marie Curie fellowship hitting rocks as Grossi deploys 'enforcer' for Ukraine war deployments

 VIENNA – The ambitious IAEA chief Rafael Grossi’s laudable Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellowship programme aimed at boosting women’s opportunities in nuclear technology has rapidly hit the rocks, sources at the UN agency say.

 The programme named after the Polish woman scientist initially drew big donations from countries eager to be associated with a flagship initiative of the International Atomic Energy Agency supremo. Donations ran to as much as 3 million euros per year for the first two years but in 2023 that had collapsed to just 270,000 euros.

 With a spend rate of close to 3 million euros a year, plus a huge staff, diplomatic sources believe the only route for the MSCFP to survive is to raid funds from the agency technical programme.

 Critics continue to accuse Grossi of blatant cronyism, pointing to his arranging the appointment to a newly-created but nebulous and highly-paid P4 post of his old Roumanian friend Daniela Caratas despite her chequered past when she was allegedly asked to leave the agency twice for claiming sick leave while posting holiday snaps from south America on social media and for a misunderstanding over her resumée. The director general’s loyalty has irked staff, 10 percent of whom are losing their jobs to budget cuts.

 Also unpopular at the agency’s Vienna headquarters is Grossi’s statuesque special assistant for management, Mariela Fognate, who he brought into the IAEA in 2020 from the Argentinian foreign ministry  and is seen by some as an “enforcer” for the director general.

 “Anyone ‘offered the opportunity’ to serve Grossi’s mission to a captured nuclear power plant, way behind Russian lines, in an active war zone littered with land mines and other military hardware knows they have to say ’yes’ (to Ms Fognate) or face certain sacking the next time their contract comes up for renewal,” one seasoned diplomatic observer in Vienna says.

 Grossi also has indicated that he gives a low priority to staff satisfaction, telling a recent meeting with underlings ‘if you don’t like it, find somewhere else to work.”

 jf